Indian island police struggle to get body of Vancouver, Wash., native killed by tribespeople

Thu., Nov. 22, 2018, 3:23 p.m.

In this October 2018 photo, American adventurer John Allen Chau, right, stands for a photograph with Founder of Ubuntu Football Academy Casey Prince, 39, in Cape Town, South Africa, days before he left for in a remote Indian island of North Sentinel Island, where he was killed. Chau, who kayaked to the remote island populated by a tribe known for shooting at outsiders with bows and arrows, has been killed, police said Wednesday, Nov. 21. Officials said they were working with anthropologists to recover the body. (Sarah Prince / AP)

In this October 2018 photo, American adventurer John Allen Chau, right, stands for a photograph with Founder of Ubuntu Football Academy Casey Prince, 39, in Cape Town, South Africa, days before he left for in a remote Indian island of North Sentinel Island, where he was killed. Chau, who kayaked to the remote island populated by a tribe known for shooting at outsiders with bows and arrows, has been killed, police said Wednesday, Nov. 21. Officials said they were working with anthropologists to recover the body. (Sarah Prince / AP)

NEW DELHI – Indian authorities were struggling Thursday to figure out how to recover the body of an American who was killed after wading ashore on an island cut off from the modern world.

John Allen Chau was killed last week by North Sentinel islanders who apparently shot him with arrows and then buried his body on the beach, police say.

But even officials don’t travel to North Sentinel, where people live as their ancestors did thousands of years ago, and where outsiders are seen with suspicion and attacked.

“It’s a difficult proposition,” said Dependera Pathak, director-general of police on India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands, where North Sentinel is located. “We have to see what is possible, taking utmost care of the sensitivity of the group and the legal requirements.”

Police are consulting anthropologists, tribal welfare experts and scholars to figure out a way to recover the body, he said.

Chau had lived in Oklahoma, where he attended Oral Roberts University, but the Columbian reported it appears he spent his formative years in Clark County. Public records show he was registered to vote here. In a blog post, he said Table Mountain, one of his favorite hometown adventures, was 45 minutes from his home.

A news brief published in The Columbian in 2009 says Chau, a Salmon Creek resident, attended Vancouver Christian High School.

According to the nearly decade-old Columbian news brief, Chau had received the Royal Rangers Gold Medal of Achievement at Mountain View Christian Center in Ridgefield, the Assemblies of God equivalent to the Eagle Scout award.

“(M)edalists do a Christian service project as part of the process. Chau, a junior at Vancouver Christian, designed the (website) for Chi Alpha, the Assemblies of God outreach program at Washington State University Vancouver,” the brief says.

While visits to the island are heavily restricted, Chau paid fishermen last week to take him near North Sentinel, using a kayak to paddle to shore and bringing gifts including a football and fish.

It was “a foolish adventure,” said P.C. Joshi, an anthropology professor at Delhi University who has studied the islands. “He invited that aggression.”

Joshi noted that the visit not only risked Chau’s life, but also the lives of islanders who have little resistance to many diseases.

“They are not immune to anything. A simple thing like flu can kill them,” he said.

On his first day Chau interacted with some tribesmen – who survive by hunting, fishing and collecting wild plants – until they became angry and shot an arrow at him. The 26-year-old self-styled adventurer and Christian missionary then swam back to the fishermen’s boat waiting at a safe distance.

That night, he wrote about his visit and left his notes with the fishermen. He returned to North Sentinel the next day, Nov. 16.

What happened then isn’t known, but on the morning of the following day, the fishermen watched from the boat as tribesmen dragged Chau’s body along the beach and buried his remains.

Pathak said seven people have been arrested for helping Chau, including five fishermen, a friend of Chau’s and a local tourist guide.

Chau was apparently shot and killed by arrows, but the cause of death can’t be confirmed until his body is recovered, Pathak said.

He also said the police were examining whether Chau had tried earlier to visit the isolated island.

Pathak said Chau and his accomplices planned well for last week’s visit by “camouflaging the visit as fishing.”

Also, Chau appeared to be full of confidence as he wrote in his notes, “God sheltered him from coastguard and Navy,” he said.

In an Instagram post, his family said it was mourning him as a “beloved son, brother, uncle and best friend to us.” The family also said it forgave his killers and called for the release of those who assisted him in his quest to reach the island.

“He ventured out on his own free will and his local contacts need not be persecuted for his own actions,” the family said.

Authorities say Chau arrived in the area on Oct. 16 and stayed on another island while he prepared to travel to North Sentinel. It was not his first time in the region: he had visited the Andaman islands in 2015 and 2016.

With help from a friend, Chau hired fishermen for $325 to take him there on a boat, Pathak said.

After the fishermen realized Chau had been killed, they left for Port Blair, the capital of the island chain, where they broke the news to Chau’s friend, who in turn notified his family, Pathak said.

Police surveyed the island by air Tuesday, and a team of police and forest department officials used a coast guard boat to travel there Wednesday. Another trip was planned Thursday.

India has a hands-off approach to the island’s people. Tribespeople killed two Indian fishermen in 2006 when their boat broke loose and drifted onto the shore, but Indian media reports say officials did not investigate or prosecute anyone in the deaths.

India recently changed some of its rules on visiting isolated regions in the Andamans. While special permits are required, scholars say visits are now theoretically allowed in some parts of the Andamans where they used to be entirely forbidden, including North Sentinel. Chau had no permit, police said.

Chau had wanted ever since high school to go to North Sentinel to share Christianity with the indigenous people, said Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Covenant Journey, a program that takes college students on tours of Israel to affirm their Christian faith. Chau went through that program in 2015.

“He didn’t go there for just adventure. I have no question it was to bring the gospel of Jesus to them,” Staver said.

Staver said Chau’s last notes to his family on Nov. 16 told them that they might think he was crazy but that he felt it was worth it and asked that they not be angry if he was killed.